Restoration Impossible: Finishing Off the Engine

Our air cleaner is now well on its way to restoration, and the original air box (finally something in good condition) sits above it in this photo.

The air cleaner as found. Fortunately, we are undaunted by almost anything and quickly whipped it into shape.

The next step in our Lotus Elan Restoration was to finish off the engine. To do that we would first need to find the correct—and now exceedingly rare—air box. Thankfully, Chris at Sevens and Elans had one in stock. He also had an original air cleaner that mounted in the nose of an Elan. It was made of steel and in rough condition, but we could hammer and weld it back into shape fairly easily.

We also would need to pull the fan pulley out a bit from the water pump housing and then paint and attach the original two-blade fan, which would have come with an early Lotus Elan.

The final step to finishing off the engine would be to fit the original style black spark plug leads—instead of the bright yellow wires that had somehow found their way onto our engine during the rebuilding process.

Fortunately, R.D. Enterprises had them right in stock at a very reasonable price.

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